BFG: 80's pacing hurts film for today's audience

I saw this movie in Russian, and I have a very limited Russian vocabulary. There is the possibility that I missed something in the translation…

With reputed children’s producer extraordinaire Steven Spielberg, whose recent children’s films have included the Adventures of Tintin and Monster House, and children’s entertainment giant Disney forming a team to bring to life a story by children’s author great Roald Dahl, people thought that BFG couldn’t miss. But it does.

Spielberg built his empire and reputation on E.T., an 80’s movie that was magically spectacular for its time, and BFG plays like an 80’s film. There are some truly beautiful moments, especially during the opening sequence showing the streets of London. The way that the giant goes through the world unnoticed is well-choreographed and ingeniously thought out. There are some funny moments, mostly based on farting, and there are moments that are supposed to pull on the heart strings. Unfortunately, in this age of ADHD, the pacing is far too slow to keep a child’s interest. It’s a little boring.

While the film feels like it comes from the 80s, it’s cinematography looks like it came straight from Disney’s A Christmas Carol, so it feels a little like a video game, and there are sequences when the girl, Sofia, is dodging the giant’s clothing that just don’t fit in the real world. You can’t see the green screen, but you know that the actress is trying to force the action rather than reacting to the threat of a huge arm knocking her off the table.​The movie is beautifully done, but that just isn’t enough for today’s cinema audience.